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Chapter 4. Threshold-switching

Paratextual functions of scribal colophons in Old and Middle English manuscripts
  • Wendy Scase
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The Dynamics of Text and Framing Phenomena
Ein Kapitel aus dem Buch The Dynamics of Text and Framing Phenomena

Abstract

This chapter offers a new, material analysis of medieval scribal colophons, the brief writings that scribes added to manuscript texts. Gérard Genette saw the scribal colophon as the ancestor of ‘paratext’, the ‘threshold’ (‘seuil’) to the printed text. Contributing to current modification of paratext theory, this chapter considers what Genette’s model reveals about manuscript culture. It proposes that the scribal colophon turns the spotlight on the graphic properties of the scribe’s work rather than simply or predominantly serving as a threshold to reading the text. The chapter proposes that threshold-switching, a term in digital electronics for a process that causes oscillation between one state and another, may be a more appropriate metaphor than the threshold for this important function of the medieval scribal colophon. The colophon is evidence that, as in digital media today, in manuscript culture writing was not regarded simply as a transparent medium that one looked through to access the meaning beyond.

Abstract

This chapter offers a new, material analysis of medieval scribal colophons, the brief writings that scribes added to manuscript texts. Gérard Genette saw the scribal colophon as the ancestor of ‘paratext’, the ‘threshold’ (‘seuil’) to the printed text. Contributing to current modification of paratext theory, this chapter considers what Genette’s model reveals about manuscript culture. It proposes that the scribal colophon turns the spotlight on the graphic properties of the scribe’s work rather than simply or predominantly serving as a threshold to reading the text. The chapter proposes that threshold-switching, a term in digital electronics for a process that causes oscillation between one state and another, may be a more appropriate metaphor than the threshold for this important function of the medieval scribal colophon. The colophon is evidence that, as in digital media today, in manuscript culture writing was not regarded simply as a transparent medium that one looked through to access the meaning beyond.

Kapitel in diesem Buch

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Acknowledgements vii
  4. Part I. Conceptualisations of text and framing phenomena
  5. Chapter 1. Framing framing 3
  6. Chapter 2. On the dynamic interaction between peritext and epitext 33
  7. Chapter 3. The footnote in Late Modern English historiographical writing 63
  8. Chapter 4. Threshold-switching 91
  9. Chapter 5. Framing material in early literacy 115
  10. Part II. Framing and audience orientation
  11. Chapter 6. Paratext and ideology in 17th-century news genres 137
  12. Chapter 7. “All which I offer with my own experience” 163
  13. Chapter 8. “I write not to expert practitioners, but to learners” 187
  14. Chapter 9. Book producers’ comments on text-organisation in early 16th-century English printed paratexts 209
  15. Part III. Form and layout in framing
  16. Chapter 10. Paratextual features in 18th-century medical writing 233
  17. Chapter 11. Recuperating Older Scots in the early 18th century 267
  18. Chapter 12. Paratext, information studies, and Middle English manuscripts 289
  19. Index 309
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.317.04sca

Kapitel in diesem Buch

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Acknowledgements vii
  4. Part I. Conceptualisations of text and framing phenomena
  5. Chapter 1. Framing framing 3
  6. Chapter 2. On the dynamic interaction between peritext and epitext 33
  7. Chapter 3. The footnote in Late Modern English historiographical writing 63
  8. Chapter 4. Threshold-switching 91
  9. Chapter 5. Framing material in early literacy 115
  10. Part II. Framing and audience orientation
  11. Chapter 6. Paratext and ideology in 17th-century news genres 137
  12. Chapter 7. “All which I offer with my own experience” 163
  13. Chapter 8. “I write not to expert practitioners, but to learners” 187
  14. Chapter 9. Book producers’ comments on text-organisation in early 16th-century English printed paratexts 209
  15. Part III. Form and layout in framing
  16. Chapter 10. Paratextual features in 18th-century medical writing 233
  17. Chapter 11. Recuperating Older Scots in the early 18th century 267
  18. Chapter 12. Paratext, information studies, and Middle English manuscripts 289
  19. Index 309
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Heruntergeladen am 8.9.2025 von https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1075/pbns.317.04sca/html?lang=de
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